There's an Albatross Around your Neck
by cosmic-divinity
Summary: Basically a college au with Yuuri going to a university near Tokyo where he meets Victor accompanied by Yuri at the university's skating rink. Romance ensues.
1. Chapter 1

_Breathe in. Breathe out._

Yuuri was past the main gate of the university and into the main campus now. In theory, there was no need for him to be nervous. He found himself constantly having to push his glasses back up the bridge of his nose due to them slipping down. He made note that it may be time for new glasses soon. This university was among a few that had a skating rink on campus. That way, it'd make it easier for him to keep up his figure skating. In fact, that's exactly what he was planning on doing after classes today. It was always a good stress reliever.

First class of the day was a biology lecture. It'd be mostly general classes for now, though to be honest, Yuuri wasn't sure what he wanted to get a degree in. For him, figure skating was what mattered, but it's not like he could just major in figure skating. But for now, he intended on doing well in the classes he was currently enrolled in.

Luckily, he had spent yesterday walking around the campus and familiarizing himself with where the different buildings were. He remembered where the science lecture hall was and went there to room 265. The room itself was huge, seating a few hundred students. He picked a seat toward the back, carefully pulling out the little desk and placing a notebook and pen there. A few others were starting to file in, and Yuuri began to busy himself with his phone. He was glad for living in such a technological age where he could distract himself from his current anxieties. He could already feel himself itching to get on the ice. The rink was only a few blocks away from the lecture hall, and this was his only class for the day.

It was the usual syllabus day. It was passed out which Yuuri immediately stuck into his folder. He'd only look at it when he needed to anyway. For the rest of the class period, the professor only went over the syllabus. The words began to soften into the background as Yuri's mind drifted elsewhere. It was boring syllabus talk anyway. He thought of home and the warm food and people there. He missed it already. This university was just outside of Tokyo, and the city seemed vast to him compared to his little town. He had been in the student housing for a few weeks now, but still hadn't managed to make any friends. Everything seemed so unfamiliar, but it was a great university. He'd get a quality education here.

He snapped back to reality when people started getting up from their chairs. With a sigh of relief, he packed away his folder and notebook into his backpack, having to shove his skates out the way. He had packed them, knowing the ice rink was the first place he'd be going after class.

The sun was out and bright in the sky as he exited the building and walked up the road to the rink. It was about the same size as the one back at home, maybe even a bit bigger. He hoped it wasn't too busy. It might even be a way for him to meet some new people who also enjoyed skating. Going inside, he made his way to the main rink and to the seating area where he could change into his skates. Since classes were still going on, it was mostly empty except for a silver haired guy currently changing into skates at the far bench. Yuuri took a seat on the opposite side and grabbed his out of his backpack. He started to lace them up, making sure they were nice and tight. His brown eyes glanced over to his left, noticing the other was occasionally glancing over at him. He supposed it would be polite to introduce himself, though his heart started to pound at the thought of it. With a deep breath, he looked over at the other who was currently distracted with tying up his skates. He looked to be a foreigner, and Yuuri wondered where he was from. He was working up the nerve to ask him when the door suddenly slamming open literally made him jump. He almost fell off the bench entirely.

"Victor! There you are!" The screeching voice echoed throughout the rink.

"Yuri, you shouldn't shout like that. We're not the only ones in here." Viktor motioned to the dark haired Yuri on the other bench.

Yuuri cocked his head to the side in confusion.

 _So, his name is Yuri too?_

Yuri looked over, giving the other a venomous look. He looked from him to Victor before huffing and sitting next to Viktor, putting on his own skates as well.

Victor chuckled before standing up suddenly and waddling over to the dark haired Yuri in his skates.

"Sorry about him. He can get antsy when he knows I'm going skating without him. I'm Victor Nikiforov. I'm from Russia but decided to go to school here. The angry one over there is Yuri Plisetsky."

He held bent down to Yuuri's level and held out his hand. It took Yuri a few seconds to realize the gesture, face turning even redder. Quickly, he shook his hand.

"Oh, uh, nice to meet you. I'm Yuuri Katsuki," he said shyly, his dark eyes met Victor's light blue ones.

Victor couldn't help but chuckle a bit as he looked from the Japanese Yuri to the Russian one.

"You hear that, Yuri? His name is Yuuri too! I'll have to come up with a nickname for one of you."

Yuuri's face felt hot as he looked up at him with a nervous smile.

"So, Yuuri, I'm guessing you skate," he said with a sly smirk. "I wonder if you can wow me. I'm quite a well known figure skater in Russia, you know."

Yuuri nodded, trying his best to avoid Yuri's intense glare.

"Well, uh, I don't know if I'd be as good as you, but I did have a coach in my hometown and a rink, and I guess I'm..pretty good."

He wasn't usually one to brag and especially not in front of another skater.

"I'm interested to see. Would you like to join me on the ice?"

Victor offered him his hand, which Yuuri slowly grabbed with his own shaky one. In one motion, Victor pulled him up onto his feet. As they got out onto the ice, Yuuri prayed he wouldn't fall onto his face.


	2. Chapter 2

Yuuri could physically feel his legs shaking as he was lead out onto the ice with Victor. He gulped at seeing how much grace Victor carried himself with. Just the simple movement of his legs and skates pushing off the ice and propelling him forward was done with the utmost grace. Yuuri already felt out of his league, not to mention the shorter Yuri was staring daggers at him from the bench area. He tried his best to keep his focus on Victor and the ice beneath his skates. He'd practiced enough to at least be able to show something off on the ice, but these Russians had an air about them that screamed professional or at least Victor did. He remembered watching him in the Grand Prix a few times, and he was amazing. He remembered him having longer hair, the silvery hair that seemed to shimmer under the lights along with the ice. Now, it was much shorter, though Yuuri remembered it not being that long ago, so the short hair must be rather recent.

"Admiring my hair?" Victor asked with a slight chuckle as he let go of Yuuri's hand and circled around to face him. "I had it cut before arriving in Japan for school. My coach was practically hounding me with questions, but the culture and everything here just fascinates me so much. Sure, I could've easily stayed in Russia, but where's the fun in that? And of course, that one insisted on following me."

He pointed over to the blonde Yuri. "If we're going to get to know each other better..I think I'll have to come up with a nickname for one of you, so it's not so confusing."

Victor placed a hand on his chin as he thought for a few seconds before pointing over to the Yuri at the benches.

"You're going to be Yurio." He then gestured to Yuuri next to him. "And he's going to be Yuuri."

"You're changing _my_ name?!" he practically screamed.

"Now, Yurio, don't be rude. It's only natural that I give you the nickname. I've known you for much longer than I've known him, which has only been for a few minutes, personally at least. You've watched me on TV, haven't you? At least I would guess so."

Yuuri tried his best to stop blushing as Victor turned to him again.

"Oh, uh, yes. I really do admire you. You're a great skater, and I hope to be as good as you someday," he said shyly.

Victor looked at him curiously as if he was studying him.

"We just met, and you already interest me so much. Alright, how about you show me a bit of what you can do, perhaps a few jumps if you want."

He then glided over to Yuuri on the ice and placed his hands on both his shoulders. Instinctively, Yuuri wanted to shrink back at the sudden proximity but managed to stay in place, though his body shook slightly.

"Take a deep breath, relax, and just skate. Don't let Yurio over there intimidate you."

 _Oh yeah, having Victor Nikiforov watch me skate isn't nerve wracking at all._

He nodded and backed up when Victor let go of his shoulders. Victor retreated to the wall by Yurio, crossing his arms and leaning against it to watch Yuuri.

Yuuri skated to the center of the rink and stood there for a minute, just breathing. He had to be relaxed and flexible. Stress would only make his movements rigid, and there's no way he could make jumps being like that. He pulled his mp3 player out of his pocket, deciding on a song Victor used in one of his free runs. Any sounds in the rink or voices were silenced as he put in the ear buds and immersed himself in the music. He recalled Victor's routine that he had admired so much and started with that. Putting anything else out of his mind, he simply began to skate. During the informal routine, he made sure to keep his eyes anywhere else besides where Victor was. Looking at his face would ruin his current calm demeanor. Focusing on the step sequence, he executed a few of the jumps. He ended up slipping up a bit on two of them, but stuck the landing on the others. He wasn't even going to attempt the quadruple flip, especially not in front of Victor himself.

His chest heaved once he finished, breath hanging in the air as he exhaled. He was expecting disappointment of course. It wasn't the most perfect imitation of Victor's routine. There was no way he'd be able to do it the same way. Eventually, he pulled the ear buds out and tucked them back into his pocket.

"So, what'd you think?" he asked once he caught his breath.

He turned to see where Victor was and nearly jumped out of his skin when the other was right in front of him as if he had just instantly teleported from the wall.

"I'm quite impressed," he said with a beaming smile and hugged Yuuri without hesitation. "That was my routine, wasn't it? I mean, of course, it wasn't perfect, but you have some amazing potential."

Yuuri didn't say much at first, trying to keep himself from imploding before gasping a little "thank you."

Victor chuckled as he kept an arm around Yuuri's shoulders as they casually skated around the rink.

"Well, you have my attention, Yuuri Katsuki, not that you didn't before. I mean, you're pretty cute."

"Oh, uh, y-yeah?" he stammered after a few seconds, trying to talk through being so flustered.

"So, let's get to know each other better. Tell me about yourself."

"Well, um, you already know my name, Yuuri. I recently moved into a student housing building here, and obviously, I'm going to be going to college here. I hope to still keep up with my figure skating while I'm here, and I wasn't expecting to run into you of all people here."

His voice fluctuated several times to near to cracking, causing him to clear his throat a couple of times.

"Do you know what you want to study here?" he asked, giving his shoulder a little squeeze, causing Yuuri to squeak slightly.

"Oh, uh, no..not yet. I'm taking general classes for now."

"That's not a bad move. And for now, it'll leave you more time to skate. If you'd like, I'll happily be your teacher of sorts, helping you with your different jumps and such. Our careers as figure skaters have only just begun after all."

Yuuri managed a little nod, finally turning his head a bit to look at him.

"I'd really like that actually..if you don't mind. If it ends up getting in the way of your studies, don't feel obligated."

"Oh, skating always comes first to me, so there's no need for you to worry," Victor assured and winked at him. "And if you're having trouble in a certain class, I'm sure I can help you with that as well."

Yuuri responded with another nod, still having trouble believing that this was actually happening.

The two took a few more circles around the rink before returning to the benches back to a disgruntled Yurio.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Yurio. Did you not want to show off your own skating to Yuuri?"

Victor slung an arm around Yuuri and gave the other a smug grin.

"Well, now I don't feel like it," he huffed.

He was changed back into his regular sneakers with his bag slung over his shoulders. "You two were grossing me out."

"Aww, were you getting jealous?" he teased further as he sat on the bench and slipped off his skates.

Yuuri was sure his face was permanently red at this point as he did the same. He was in the process of putting his shoes back on when he felt Victor slide up to his side.

"Yuuri! Smile for Instagram!"

He managed to look up and flash a quick smile to Victor's phone camera. Victor excitedly began typing up a caption: "One of the first people I've met at the University"

"Yuuri, do you have an Instagram? I'll tag you if you do."

Yuuri was about to say no, but the look on Victor's face made him sigh and say, "Yeah, it's katsuki_yuuri."

"One of the first people I've met at the University who's also a figure skater katsuki_yuuri."

"And…posted! Want to see? You look quite cute."

Victor smirked at just how much he could make Yuuri blush just from saying something as simple as that. Yuuri gulped and nodded, sneaking a peek at the post on his own phone when he got the notification. Of course, his face looked like a tomato compared to Victor's, but he could look worse.

"Oh yeah, looks nice."

Yurio was proceeding to make fake gagging sounds as he was putting his skates on again.

"You two can go and do whatever things you want. If you don't mind, I'd prefer to skate alone."

"Alright, alright, if that's what you want. Text me when you're done, and I'll let you know where I am," Victor said as he gathered up his things and motioned for Yuuri to follow him.

He waved to the other before holding the door open for Yuuri and heading back outside. Due to the bright sunlight, Yuuri instinctively held an arm up to block it from his eyes.

"Certainly, a change in temperature from in there. Now, let's see..where should we go next?" Victor mused, placing his hand up to his chin.

"Um, well, there's a café not too far from here. I always found that hot drinks are nice after some time on the ice," Yuuri suggested, adjusting his glasses with the top of his hand.

Victor's eyes lit up at the suggestion and grabbed onto his hand.

"Ah, hot drinks! That's a perfect idea, Yuuri!"

Before Yuuri knew it, he was being dragged off by Victor and had to tell him the café was in the other direction.


	3. Chapter 3

Yuuri found himself brushing a bit of sweat from his forehead once him and Victor once they made it inside the café. Compared to the cool temperature of the ice rink, the hot 80-degree weather felt sweltering.

"I'll go get us a table. Here's some money. Could you just get me a cold green tea?" Yuuri asked and handed a wad of money into Victor's hands.

Without giving the other man much time to answer, he had already scoped out a table away from the windows in the back where it was nice and cool. Victor chuckled to himself and waited in line until it was his turn. Yuuri breathed a sigh of relief once he took a seat at the booth. Taking a moment to just breathe, he sank back against the back cushion, trying to ground himself.

"It's alright. It's just Victor Nikiforov your long time idol..no biggie."

The internal monologue wasn't helping, so he attempted to busy himself by tapping his finger on the table.

It wasn't long before Victor returned, placing Yuuri's cold green tea on the table by him. He had ordered an iced hibiscus tea himself and sat on the opposite side of the booth. Yuuri still tapped on the table nervously, not entirely sure how to even start a normal conversation with Victor. He had idolized him and now here he was just casually sitting in front of him at a café.

"You know, you're a great skater. Could you use some refinement and practice? Of course, I mean everyone can, but I do mean what I say, and I stand by it," he said simply and took a few sips of his tea.

Yuuri automatically knew his face was quickly turning red. He could feel the familiar heat radiating off his cheeks.

"Oh, th-thanks. I mean, I'm nowhere near your level, but that does mean a lot coming from you," he managed to say before quickly pushing his own straw in his mouth to sip on his green tea.

Victor seemed to be rather amused with how much he could make Yuuri blush, giving him a wink that sent his face into tones of deep scarlet.

"So, tell me more about yourself, Yuuri. Where do you come from? What do you want to study here? And how long have you been skating?" Victor asked curiously.

The sudden multiple questions caught Yuuri off guard, and it took him a bit just to think of how to answer.

"Oh, I'm from Hansetsu in Kyushu. It's in the southernmost island of Japan, so I suppose I'm rather far from home being close to Tokyo. As for a major, I'm not really sure yet, but I hope I can figure it out by taking some general classes, so I'm undeclared for now. As for skating, I've been doing it since I was pretty little. My town has its own skating rink, and I lived right by it, so it was only a short run away. I've been in a few competitions but nothing too big. I admit..my confidence in myself hasn't been the best lately. That might be why I haven't gotten that far."

Yuuri gulped as he waited for Victor to respond. He hadn't expected to tell him that. It just kinda came out as he was talking. It was strange. It wasn't like he knew Victor personally. Really, this was their first time meeting, and Yuuri had just told him something quite personal. Mostly keeping to himself, it was mostly his family and close friends that knew about that.

Victor brought up his hand to his own chin and stroked it as he took in what Yuuri had told him.

"I see..but you know, I honestly mean it when I say that you're a beautiful skater. If you're going through a slump, then I'll happily help you through it. The worst thing you can do when you hit a wall like that or lose inspiration is to stop skating. Even if you don't know where to take it next, just keep skating, even if it's just for fun or to help you think. The worst thing is to slowly lose your skill. So, I propose a plan. Show me your class schedule, and I'll compare it with mine. If we can, it'd be optimal to meet up once a day at the rink to practice. How about that?" Victor proposed.

He was already bringing up his schedule on his phone as he talked.

The sudden offer took Yuuri by surprise. He wasn't one to just happily accept help from others since he had a habit of hiding his problems. He hadn't expected to let his insecurities slip in conversing with Victor.

"Oh, um, sure..I mean, if you don't mind that is," he muttered shyly.

He brought his schedule up on his phone and showed it to Victor, who typed down his class times into his notes.

"Alright, looks like we both have our evenings free. Your latest class ends in the late afternoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays and ends even earlier the other days. How about we meet at the rink at six. Of course, if you can't make a certain day, it's no problem. It's really up to you if you want to do this."

Victor outstretched a hand toward Yuuri with a cheerful smile. "Well, is it a deal?"

Yuuri was hesitant at first. He hadn't known someone so wanting to help him besides those he knew in Hansetsu. With another gulp, he took Victor's hand in his, giving a little handshake.

"It's a deal. It'd be nice to have someone help me with my skating, especially you, Victor. Thank you," he said earnestly with a little smile.

Victor's eyes practically lit up at that and quickly had Yuuri's fingers intertwined with his own and even took a hold of his other hand.

"I can't wait to see what you're capable of, Yuuri."

At this point, Yuuri was ninety nine percent sure he was about to faint. Either he was just getting light headed or this was some form of swooning. He did have to admit that Victor was rather handsome. There was no denying that.

"Woah, you alright?" Victor chuckled, holding onto his hands more to keep him from tilting to the side.

"Y-yeah! Guess I just got a little light headed there." Yuuri let out a nervous laugh as he straightened his glasses, which were beginning to slip off his nose.

The two of them continued to converse in casual chit chat for a while until both of their drinks were finished and they headed out of the café. Yuuri didn't have anymore classes for the day, but he still had a bit of school shopping to take care of. He still had to get notebooks, folders, and such for his upcoming classes. Victor walked him back to his dorm, exchanging phone numbers with him along the way.

"Hey, Yuuri!" he called as Yuuri was waving goodbye, heading through the front door.

He stopped himself and leaned out of the doorway. "Yeah, what is it?"

"How about you and I go on a date this evening?" Victor asked with no hesitation what so ever.

"Wh-what?" Yuuri asked in an exasperated tone, nearly falling backwards.

"Do you want to go on a date with me tonight? How about I meet you here around seven?" Victor said again, wearing a sly smirk on his face. "There's a beautiful spot here that I want to show you, though it's best to view it at night."

Yuuri peeked out at him from behind the door as he thought about it. It was enough that Victor was going to help him with his skating and now..a date? It was almost too much. Yuuri experimentally pinched himself, making sure this was real.

"Um, sure. I mean..why not? I'll..go on a date with you." He nodded timidly from the door, gradually scooching more and more inside.

"Great! I'll see you at this spot later, then."

Victor winked and blew him a kiss before walking off down the sidewalk.

Once Yuuri made it to his room, he was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. By registering early and signing up for a dorm at that time as well, he was able to get a one bedroom apartment in the student housing building, so he always had the place to himself. Sitting at his desk, he started to make a list of school supplies and text books he'd need to get, though school and errands were the farthest things from his mind at this point.


End file.
